Herbert "Midnight" Albert, who's been living at the Lyric Hotel for 12 years, walks through the lobby on Tuesday March 20, 2010 in San Francisco, Calif. The Lyric is one of eight facilities run by Conard House, an organization that offers mentally ill patients supportive living situations. The organization, faced with government budget cuts, is worried about how that might effect its clients.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Herbert "Midnight" Albert, who's been living at the Lyric Hotel for...

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Laura Wilcox, of Penn Valley, Calif., is shown in this undated family handout photo. Wilcox, 19, was killed Wednesday morning, Jan. 10, 2001, at a county social services building in Nevada City, Calif. Three people were killed and two others were wounded at the county office and a restaurant by a gunman investigators say was a mental patient convinced the restaurant was trying to poison him. Scott Harlan Thorpe, 40, has been arrested in connection with the deaths.

Rather than watch her legislation to enact Laura's Law in San Francisco go down to defeat Tuesday, Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier at the last minute sent the proposal back to committee for further debate in the early fall.

Alioto-Pier's decision came after San Francisco's public health director, Dr. Mitch Katz, made a forceful argument to reject the legis- lation that would allow the city's mental health chief to petition the civil court to order people with severe mental illness into outpatient treatment.

"There is a basic ethical principle in public health," he added. "Ethical principle is not infringing on someone's rights unless you have an efficacious treatment. And because Laura's Law doesn't allow for medication, I do not believe it fulfills that ethical principle."

Alioto-Pier knew heading into the board meeting that the vote could go either way. But after Katz made clear his opposition during testimony before the board, winning approval would be "hard but not impossible," Alioto-Pier said after keeping her legislation from a vote.

However, she said afterward, "I'm committed to getting this done."

She will have the support of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who bucked his public health director's opinion, and said Tuesday that he supports Alioto-Pier's efforts and would like to see San Francisco give Laura's Law a try. It would give families another tool, he said, to seek help for their loved ones before they harm themselves or others.

Mental health professionals have been split over the state law, which was enacted in 2002.

It was named after Laura Wilcox, a 19-year-old college student who was working in a Nevada County public mental health clinic when she was gunned down by a 41-year-old man with a history of violence who resisted his family's efforts to get him treatment.

The state left implementation to individual counties, and so far only Nevada County has enacted it fully; Los Angeles County implemented a limited pilot program.

In making her case, Alioto-Pier said that criminal defendants with mental health problems who go through the city's Behavioral Health Court system and are provided with treatment services as an alternative to incarceration have shown a decrease in psychiatric hospitalization, violence and homelessness.

"Unfortunately in San Francisco, an individual has to commit a crime before receiving these structured treatments," she said.

Opponents said a chief concern was that the city doesn't have enough money now to provide services for mentally ill people who voluntarily want them.

"We do not have the resources to be able to enact Laura's Law," said Supervisor John Avalos.

Supervisor Chris Daly added, "It's bad politics, it's bad form, and having been here fighting to save a $2 million cut here, a $3 million cut there (in existing mental health services), this is frustrating."

Even if Laura's Law never is put on the books in San Francisco, Katz said supporters shouldn't despair.

"The best thing that can come out of this debate is a renewed commitment on the part of San Franciscans to do something meaningful both for people who are impacted themselves and for their family members who are often made to feel disempowered by the system, who are often sort of on the fringes crying, watching their relatives deteriorate," Katz said.